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Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, To the church of God in Corinth, together with all his holy people throughout Achaia:
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Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
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Praise to the God of All Comfort
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort,
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who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.
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Indeed, we felt we had received the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead.
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Paul’s Change of Plans
Now this is our boast: Our conscience testifies that we have conducted ourselves in the world, and especially in our relations with you, with integrity and godly sincerity. We have done so, relying not on worldly wisdom but on God’s grace.
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But as surely as God is faithful, our message to you is not “Yes” and “No.”
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For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us—by me and Silas and Timothy—was not “Yes” and “No,” but in him it has always been “Yes.”
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For no matter how many promises God has made, they are “Yes” in Christ. And so through him the “Amen” is spoken by us to the glory of God.
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Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us,
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I call God as my witness—and I stake my life on it—that it was in order to spare you that I did not return to Corinth.
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Not that we lord it over your faith, but we work with you for your joy, because it is by faith you stand firm.
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I wrote as I did, so that when I came I would not be distressed by those who should have made me rejoice. I had confidence in all of you, that you would all share my joy.
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For I wrote you out of great distress and anguish of heart and with many tears, not to grieve you but to let you know the depth of my love for you.
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Forgiveness for the Offender
If anyone has caused grief, he has not so much grieved me as he has grieved all of you to some extent—not to put it too severely.
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But thanks be to God, who always leads us as captives in Christ’s triumphal procession and uses us to spread the aroma of the knowledge of him everywhere.
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For we are to God the pleasing aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing.
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Unlike so many, we do not peddle the word of God for profit. On the contrary, in Christ we speak before God with sincerity, as those sent from God.
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You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.
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Such confidence we have through Christ before God.
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Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God.
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The Greater Glory of the New Covenant
Now if the ministry that brought death, which was engraved in letters on stone, came with glory, so that the Israelites could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of its glory, transitory though it was,
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For what was glorious has no glory now in comparison with the surpassing glory.
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And if what was transitory came with glory, how much greater is the glory of that which lasts!
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And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
